illustrated

photos: match the caption with the picture.

me in my "chef duds" in preparation for our (we students') first day in the kitchen.
mr. sealion very handsomely vanna white-ing a meal.
"my first day at school" photo, (for ms. woo-lovely).
in class.
food. comin' outta the oven. this is a yummy concoction of my own imaginings: quinoa with roasted sweet potato, onions, garlic~~and! chopped dates! with a squirt of lime juice.

turning point

i wrote a letter to my lucent dossier family that pretty succinctly sums up this major Fork-in-the-Road that i feel i have successfully navigated. since it says it best, i thought i'd let you read it, and officially share my Big News.
take note: the closing bit, starting with the big-letter parts, hold true for you,~~my extend-a-family here at WIDE WORLD OF TIF, too!!

my loves~
it's time for me to share some good news with you from the Land of Tif:
i'm attending "natural chef" school at Bauman College in berkeley (look it up! www.baumancollege.com/ it's coo-ool!!).
this is a holistic nutrition school, and the program i am in is an intensive, five-month training program. very hands-on and roll-up-yer-sleeves.
over the winter i had been all-inward-looking, imploring of the universe to give me direction, and trying very hard to love myself and be patient. feeling very much at the end of my rope~~and losing my grip~~i pleaded for help: anything! something? pLeAse? and the universe gave me a word, "food." the last time i met with you wonderluvlies (at rehearsal) was later that same day. i let this sit and waited with open hands. within the weekend, opportunities were presented, connections were made, and i had found the website for bauman college. i received their info in the mail, and ~with uncanny-perfect timing~ was able to enroll for the spring course that began THE NEXT DAY(!), the 5-month course finishes the weekend before burning man. the timing could not have been more perfectly suited to my life at this exact moment.
troy is very supportive and excited, and i LOVE class so much i can barely sleep at night!! this feels so right, i can't even tell you. i feel as if i've truly finally fully returned to my self (after how many years?), and can finally dig in to my life's calling.
i feel so grounded, and deeply satisfied~~and invigorated in the way you feel as you're *nailing* that choreography onstage and everyone's loving it, only the feeling doesn't go away when i get offstage.
SO, i'm gonna be very much absorbed in this process for the next 5 months, attending classes 3 days a week and becoming a kick-ass natural chef. i'm going to be very envious of your magical process and adventures, but i feel so good about where i am at in my life that i will be all-smiles from the audience.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! YOU INSPIRE ME MOMENT-BY-MOMENT!! KEEP BE-ING IT! KEEP LIVING IT!!
i love sharing this life with you~~the beautiful family i created for myself from my own heart. what perfection!!
kisses, elf-luvins, and abundant magical light~
~tif


muchas muchas gracias(!!!) to: ms. woo-lovely and "milsey" for their open hearts, listening ears, dreaming and scheming!
my favorite gYrl for her professional recommendation, and eternal support,
brer, once again, for the safe landing-pad, the idea bouncer-of-back, and Everything,
and!! my sweetest sealion!! for his patience and love and support even in the not-understanding parts of this drippy rainy season process, for his unending encouragement and enthusiasm and "bouyant" spirit. i marvel that you have stuck around, but i sure am glad!!

the door, part TWO

yeah~~
remember when i let you in on my over-protective schpiel about that dirty storage room and the cats? that they always peeeer under the door and fantacize about getting to the other side, because they can sMeLL the mischief to be had there?

WELL. i was right.

this morning, just shy of 5am, i am yanked to consciousness by that back-o-the-neck, goosebump primeval noise: yowwwwwoOOWWW!!" "YOWWWWW!!! SSSSSSSS!!! SSSSSS!!!" and the sound of a fur-flying ruckous. great.
"guys, what's going on?" i call from bed, clap my hands (our disciplinary correction) and pull the covers back over my head wishing that the problem would go away of its own accord. no, not that lucky.
"YOWWWW!!!!! sssss! SSSSS!!" it's kitty, i can tell; i've heard this one before. i throw back the covers and make my way in the dark to see that kitty has scrambled in retreat under a fabric hanging that covers the wall behind troy's desk. rodolfo is batting antagonistically at the goofy lump she makes under the fabric. i clap my hands to get him to move, and flick on the light. as soon as he leaves the cowering, growling lump-o-kitty, rodolfo~~still bushy-tailed,~~slinks over to "the door" that leads to that drafty dark dirty storage room. he lowers his head so that the crack under the door is eye level, and sniff-sniff-sniffs.

oh. so that's what's going on; there's a visitor in the storage room. uck. i try NOT to imagine what it might be on the other side. . a rat.. a possum.. ~~a person wouldn't cause this kitty freak-out session (they'd just hide in the closet); this could mean only one animal as far as i can remember. . . i crouch down, in nuthin-but-my-socks, swallow, and do my version of The Rodolfo~~i squint one eye, and look through the crack under the door. there he is, sitting on his haunches right beside bri's suitcase: a tomcat. looking over at us. he seems young; he's petite and buzzing with energy even as he sits. black and white spotted, with long-ish fur. i haven't seen him around here during the day. he must indeed be "on the prowl."
knowing at least what i'm up against, i swat rodolfo out of the way (who, of course, is always happy to let someone else do the dirty work. about the only thing he's "good" for is mangling small crickets.. ) and open the door. the tom is gone in a flash. i hear him scrambling past some empty boxes, and~~i imagine~~out the hole through which he entered.

snoozing in the breezy windowsill, the cats have just now calmed down after being on-edge all morning. kitty acting stricken and "violated" all the while. rodolfo practicing his suavest old-west style slink-n-prowl.

SEE??!! i told you i didn't trust the dark drafty corners of that storage room!! we'll have to see what the Misters Handymen can do about fixing that hole..

here i am!

ok! here i am!
thank you for your patience, those who have inquired. i had to take a break. again. scratch into my burrow and hunker down and peer out everyonce inna while and just wait it out.
the rain is still coming, more intermittently now, but it's a warm rain. and when the sun shines~~things are growing!!
i sit here in the studio at "the" 510 and bathe in the sunshine like that black kitty-o-mine. where is she? she must be gettin' into mischief if she's not taking advantage of this sunlight. . i hear the rustling of that sweet sealion as he stirs from sleep and it's a gorgeous, glorious morning.
i have much to share, and a back-log of stories and pictures. and they just keep on comin! let's see how we do. . . first off~~i'd like to officially direct you to My Other Blog ("my other blog is a porsche" i like the one: "my other car is a broomstick"): food-a-file, as that will play a Newly Major Role in my continuing story. if i have my way, you'll be seeing a lot of me there. . .. i not so savvy with the workings of Blogger.. . i tend to mess-things-up when i try to do anything more than write blog and enter photo, so i guess you will just have to VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE (which, speaking of messing-things-up, is now at the BOTTOM of WIDE WORLD OF TIF~~ha!!) to find food-a-file. .. ;-P
glad to be back.